Ivey: $9.6 million Atlantic City baccarat win was all skill

In this July 15, 2009 file photo, Phil Ivey looks up during the World Series of Poker at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Laura Rauch, File)

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — World-famous poker player Phil Ivey says his disputed $9.6 million baccarat win at Atlantic City’s Borgata casino was all skill, and he’s seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit in which the casino accuses him of cheating.

In April, the Borgata sued Ivey, alleging he and an associate exploited a defect in cards that enabled them to sort and arrange good cards. The casino asserted that technique gave him an unfair advantage on four occasions between April and October 2012. The casino says the technique, called edge sorting, violates New Jersey casino gambling regulations.

But Ivey’s motion says his win was simply the result of skill and good observation.

“Each and every penny of defendants’ winnings was the result of sheer skill,” Ivey’s lawyers wrote in court papers.

The Borgata had no immediate comment.

In legal terms, Ivey’s lawyers responded to the lawsuit in three main ways. They asserted that Ivey and the associate did nothing that could be considered cheating; that a six-month statute of limitations to recover money lost in a supposedly illegal game had expired; and that supposed violations of state casino regulations can be pursued only by state gambling regulators, not by casinos.

The lawsuit says the cards were defective in that the pattern on the back was not uniform. The cards have rows of small white circles designed to look like the tops of cut diamonds, but the Borgata says some of them were only half-diamonds or quarters.

The lawsuit says that Ivey and his companion instructed a dealer to flip cards in particular ways, depending on whether they were desirable cards in baccarat: the numbers 6, 7, 8 and 9. It says bad cards would be flipped in different directions, so that after several hands of cards, the good ones were arranged in a certain manner — with the irregular sides of the cards facing in a specific direction — that Ivey could spot when they came out of the dealer chute.

The lawsuit says Ivey wanted the cards shuffled by an automatic shuffling machine, which would not alter the way each card was aligned.

Ivey’s response says he simply noticed things that anyone playing the game could have observed and bet accordingly.

Responding to a lawsuit Ivey filed in Britain’s High Court against Malaysia-based casino operator Genting Group involving a similar dispute, Genting made a similar accusation against Ivey. It alleges Ivey and an accomplice amassed almost $12 million by cheating at baccarat. Ivey has denied any misconduct.

Ivey won his 10th World Series of Poker bracelet last week. He is tied for the second most all time.